Crane Watch: 10 high-profile projects to watch in 2023

March 9, 2023

As the Federal Reserve began a series of interest rate hikes late last year, it led to developers pausing or delaying projects in the face of less favorable loan terms. While fears of a recession aren’t as pronounced in the San Antonio area and investment ramps up again, there’s no shortage of transformational projects that are poised to change the city’s landscape.

From the multifamily conversion of the Tower Life building to the Alamo redevelopment. Here are 10 projects to keep an eye on this year.

The Creamery Building

The joint effort by AREA Real Estate LLC and Embry Partners to rehabilitate a former dairy plant first surfaced in 2020. The $100 million project includes 338 luxury apartments in the top floors, offices, five restaurants and retail space. While work was initially delayed due to Covid-19, the apartments are set to open in the spring. The restaurants and offices are expected to follow in the summer.

The project is a stone’s throw away from the Pearl in the Tobin Hill neighborhood, which was highlighted by Embrey executive vice president of development Jimmy McCloskey in a January interview.

“I think we’ve got a lot of things to offer that the projects in and around the Pearl offer as well, which is location,” he said.

Hemisfair Phase 2

The years-long effort to revamp the Hemisfair area will turn a page in the summer after the completion of its first phase, when Civic Park is scheduled to come online. Whereas Civic Park will take up shape at the northwestern edge of the 96-acre space, the second phase will connect the northern and southern edges of the property. According to city bidding documents made public late in 2022, the plan calls in part for the construction of an entrance plaza, gardens and sidewalks.

Work on the project is expected this summer after the City Council awards the $15.8 million contract. Hemisfair CEO Andres Andujar has noted that the project would deliver a centerpiece of public green space in the city of a caliber not seen in the area in decades.

WatersEdge I & II

A pair of office buildings that are going up in the Brooks area signify an investment in class A space that hasn’t been seen on the Southside before, positioning the region to compete with other submarkets for office tenants. The first building is scheduled for completion in the summer of 2023, with the second one on track for delivery by the end of the year, which would add about 200,000 square feet of office space to the area. Brooks Development Authority has committed to moving into the complex once it’s completed, and have committed to investing about $1 million towards landscaping.

Virginia-based Campbell Development Group LLC is leading the project. The second phase of WatersEdge is expected to cost $18.6 million. The Authority’s Chief Strategy Officer, Connie Gonzalez, said that the development would likely spur other class A projects like it at Brooks to meet the demand for medical offices.

The Alamo

Like a snowball rolling down a mountain, the momentum of the $300-$400 million Alamo redevelopment project appears to be unstoppable. The Alamo Trust has been awarded permits from state and local authorities to start construction on the Alamo Gate and Lunette, the Alamo Visitors Center, Education Center and the Woolworth Building. The work would include reconstructing parts of the Alamo that have been lost to time, restoring a local civil rights landmark nearby and building a museum to enhance the ability to tell the entire story of the Alamo.

The plan calls for construction to begin in the summer of 2023. There’s a high-profile hitch still being sorted out though: The owner of Moses Rose’s Hideout, a bar just west of Alamo Plaza at 516 East Houston St., is refusing to sell his property without a fight. The city is hoping that a recent vote to start eminent domain proceedings ends with him taking a deal before it’s taken to the courts.

Cattleman Square Lofts

In the works since 2019, local housing nonprofit Alamo Community Group is bringing something to the downtown area that’s rare: new affordable housing. Each of the 138 units will be offered somewhere below the area’s average median rent (AMI). 21 of those units will be offered at 30% AMI. The project got a boost recently after winning $38 million in 4% state tax credits in a lottery drawing. The firm is working to secure additional private financing. Ground is slated to break in the summer of 2023.

Alamo Community Group executive director Jennifer Gonzalez said that the project will be a starting point for others to come in and redevelop the west downtown area. The SAGE Group is the architect.

Tower Life Building

Arguably the most famous building on the San Antonio skyline, the Tower Life Building was stewarded by the Zachry family for 75 years until it finally traded hands. An ownership consortium comprised of veteran downtown developer Ed Cross and partner Jon Wiegand purchased the building with financial backing from the McCombs family with intentions for an office-to-multifamily conversion.

Cross told the Business Journal construction is tentatively slated for mid-2024, and poses a multitude of structural challenges he and Wiegand are working fervently to overcome. If the experiment is successful, Tower Life may become referential to developers nationally seeking to accomplish similar conversions.

300 Main

San Antonio’s first luxury apartment high rise broke ground in the spring of 2022, and is slated for a two-year turnaround. At its helm is Weston Urban, which is reputed for its office buildings, including Frost Tower. Recently, however, the developer set its sights on residential and retail projects including the renovation of the historic Continental Hotel.

300 Main is a paragon of the new downtown San Antonio – not a central business district, but a massive residential neighborhood.

Floodgate

To create its characteristic helix shape, developer Keller Henderson offset each of Floodgate’s 17 stories from one another, creating one of the most immediately recognizable buildings in downtown San Antonio. The result offers every resident their own singularly unique view of the city.

“It’s the size of a postage stamp,” Henderson said about the quarter-acre lot atop which the $43 million development sits. This created a host of challenges to navigate, including cement trucks doing multiple-point turns in the basement. Despite a number of labor and material setbacks during the pandemic pushing the building’s completion date, Henderson will be ready to lease this spring.

VIDA San Antonio

To call VIDA ambitious would be an understatement. Upon completion, the project will boast 4,000 residential units of varying types and 300,000 square feet of retail space – utterly transforming an otherwise untouched swathe of San Antonio’s South Side. The $250 million development, which broke ground in 2021, is not set to complete for another nine years. The challenges before Thad Rutherford and his team at SouthStar Communities include navigating a potential recession in housing, and capital markets which have turned unfavorable to developers.

Jefferson Bank

As Jefferson Bank gets ready to move in 260 employees to its new Broadway location, it is also bringing in 1900 Wealth and Jefferson Bank Mortgage, its wealth management and mortgage lending arms, as well. The San Antonio bank’s new HQ benefits from special zoning permissions allowing it to tower over other buildings in the area. It also boasts space reserved for retail uses including a rooftop bar, allowing the hub of commerce to slide neatly into its place near Pearl.